The public needs a say on massive data-mining

Want me to pick up anything? (Say parts for a bomb, or was it dinner?)

Got our tickets (for escape, make that vacation escape).

Later (code for terrorism plans a go, or goodbye).

As if we didn't already know that precious little of our lives is truly private anymore, the news of a massive data-mining effort by the National Security Agency and FBI into Americans' communications is deeply troubling. It deserves a major public debate and congressional review.

Candidate Barack Obama was clear on the need for more transparency and better oversight in anti-terrorism efforts and critical of President George W. Bush administration's warrantless snooping. Now President Obama has exponentially inflated the probes, albeit with secret court oversight, and failed to offer the nation and Congress a full open debate on how far into Americans' private lives the government should go to stop terrorists.

We already know that the special secret court created by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act has approved wide data collection efforts on Americans' communications via email, phone, text, Skype, Facebook and more. The idea is the data dump will allow investigators to monitor terorrists' communications with individuals in the U.S.

Individual phone calls, like the imaginary one above, are not routinely overheard. Rather, the experts run algorithms on data to seek unusual patterns that might suggest links between foreign terrorists and Americans. Investigators need court approval to wiretap phones.

There are many peculiarities to this latest revelation. Why does the Foreign (emphasis on foreign) Intelligence Surveillance Act court get to order data collection on Americans? How does this jibe with Fourth Amendment protections? How can Americans trust that the information will never be misused for political purposes or to target minority groups or activists?

The great civil liberties traditions of this nation do not condone invasive sweeps of information from innocents to find the few bad guys. Normally, we expect authorities to pinpoint suspects, ask for court permission to seek more information, and proceed to prosecute cases. This all-in collection is a radical switch. While potentially effective in finding terror cells, it raises the question of how much privacy we are willing to relinquish to attempt to stay safe.

That debate belongs in Congress and on Main Street. It needs to happen soon, and Obama should call for it directly.

We have argued against many of the overreaching provisions of the Patriot Act, warning judicial oversight was lacking in the original act, as were adequate avenues to legally challenge data requests in the later version. Back in 2006, the public worried about government access to private library transactions. Today, that seems almost quaint.

The Fourth Amendment prevents "unreasonable searches" and sets out specific requirements for warrants, including "probable cause." Both the Bush and Obama administrations profess no abuses of private information. But history is littered with abuses, including of political opponents and civil rights leaders. The challenge now is for Americans to get a shot at deciding how far the government should go in tracking terrorists.

Americans are well versed in our lack of privacy. Any Internet user knows that Google ads reflect recent "private" searches and Amazon knows what you've been reading well enough to offer book recommendations. The government knows everywhere we've traveled.

If massive, pre-emptive data collection is needed for the tech-savvy algorithms to do their magic in finding connections to terrorism networks, it is now up to the Americans to decide whether that's reasonable and reasonably protected information. But that can't happen without an informed dialogue.

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The public needs a say on massive data-mining

Hi, honey (and NSA and FBI). Leaving work soon (not this world, I hope). Want me to pick up anything? (Say parts for a bomb, or was it dinner?) Got our tickets (for escape, make that vacation escape).